1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing device that allows drive assistance control based on a camera image to resume without stopping even when a pedestrian protection mechanism is activated.
2. Related Art
When a pedestrian collides with the front bumper of a vehicle traveling at a predetermined speed or higher, the front bumper sweeps up the pedestrian's legs, causing the upper body of the pedestrian to fall onto the front hood and the head of the pedestrian to secondarily collide with, for instance, the front windshield and the front pillars (A pillars).
Pedestrian protection airbags are known as a countermeasure for avoiding such secondary collisions. With regard to such a pedestrian protection airbag, when a collision with a pedestrian is detected, an airbag provided in the engine compartment is inflated and deployed toward the front windshield and the front pillars (A pillars) so as to cover these rigid sections, thereby preventing the pedestrian's head from directly colliding with the rigid sections. In another known technology for avoiding a secondary collision, when a pedestrian collides with a running vehicle, the front hood is popped up so that the front hood functions as a cushion member.
In a vehicle equipped with an onboard camera that recognizes the front of the vehicle, when the pedestrian protection mechanism, such as the pedestrian protection airbag or the pop-up front hood, is activated, the activation of the pedestrian protection mechanism undesirably causes a part of the pedestrian protection airbag or the front hood to enter the field angle. If the part of the airbag or the front hood is erroneously recognized as an obstacle located within a very short distance, there is a possibility of erroneous activation of drive assistance control, such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB). Therefore, if the pedestrian protection mechanism is activated, the drive assistance control based on an image captured by the onboard camera is automatically turned off.
However, when the drive assistance control stops, the driver may try to avoid a collision with the pedestrian and perform erroneous driving (such as erroneous steering and erroneous gas-pedal handling), possibly making it impossible to prevent a secondary collision of the vehicle (such as a collision with a power pole, driving over a road shoulder, and so on). Thus, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2004-284440 discloses a technology in which, even if the airbag or the front hood blocks the front windshield and obstructs the field of view, this is appropriately dealt with by ensuring the field of view with an image captured by a camera disposed in front of the rearview mirror.
However, in the technology disclosed in JP-A No. 2004-284440, the positional relationship between the camera and the airbag as well as the front hood has to be adjusted so that the airbag and the front hood do not enter the field angle of the camera even when the airbag or the front hood blocks the front of the front windshield.
As a result, performing the adjustment by limiting the view angle (field angle) of the camera would pose a problem for normal drive assistance control, and moreover, performing the adjustment by limiting the inflation and deployment of the airbag or the pop-up of the front hood would be problematic in adding constraints to the avoidance of a secondary collision with a pedestrian in the event of a collision.